Daniel Reagan is an associate professor of political science at Ball State University. He has been at Ball State since 1989 and focuses the subject of public policy in politics. After watching Obama's speech Tuesday night, he shares his thoughts about Obama's first address in front of a joint session of Congress on a national stage.
What do you think Ball State students should take away from President Obama's speech?
"He covered a lot and there was a lot of important things. While the main topic was the state of the economy, he also talked about energy, health care and education and he wrapped those issues into concern with the economy. One of the reasons I think he's trying to do this is sort of reframing these issues. Part of the economic challenge that we are facing is that those issues need our attention.
"Something Ball State students should take note of was what he said about higher education. Obama talked about sending 7 million more people to college and the higher education tax credit he has carried over from the campaign. Some of the chatter among pundits was he would have to tone back a lot of the initiatives he talked about during the campaign. I think he made clear that those campaign items were not going to take a back seat."
Some people view this as the State of the Union address Obama didn't get to have this year. How accurate do you think that is?
"I think there is a lot of truth to that. It was in the same setting as the state of the union, with both houses of Congress in the building and it was to a national audience. I think it was an effort to serve a lot of the same purposes.
"Something else that caught my attention was - and this is often true of those people who run for office - that they talk of all these grand plans but the burden of governing dampens their rhetoric. I also know that in the past week, a lot of people have been criticizing Obama for being too pessimistic and too despairing. One of the challenges I think the president faced with [Tuesday night's] speech is to lay out his understanding that we do have a pretty serious problem, but not sound hopeless. Early on in the speech he had language like "America will go on, America will recover," and that' an example of a president trying to get that balance right."
What did you think about Obama's strive to bipartisanship?
"I think he has stayed consistent through the early parts of campaigning through [Tuesday night's] speech. He keeps saying that the polarizing talk dominating political discourse over the last 20 years is something the country needs to put behind it. ... I think tonight he sent a strong signal to the country saying, 'I'm not going to stop doing that and I'm serious about this.'"
Will this speech be remembered?
"The actions of the next year or so will have the biggest bearing on how long or if this speech will be remembered. I think it has that potential and I think we are certainly in that moment of political history where things don't seem to be run of the mill. Some of the examples he gave [Tuesday night] harped to that. He talked about big, bold government action, he mentioned the [American] Civil war, he mentioned the Industrial Revolution and he gave a Depression example. One of the phrases he used was 'promise in the midst of peril' and he addresses the 'move forward' - something the Democrats have liked a lot more than Republicans.
"The academic in me wants to say it's to early to say for sure if we are in this transitional historical moment. But what I also want to say, as an academic, is that it is certainly possible that we are."
Click here for a transcript of Obama's speech.
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